Can GOP Use El-Sayed's Usha Vance Comments To Win Over Indian Americans?

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/28/2026) (TROY) – Republican leaders in Michigan's Indian-American community claimed Abdul El-Sayed – Democrats' U.S. Senate nominee – needs to stop using the vice president's wife as his "political punching bag."

"Earlier this year, Abdul repeatedly referred to JD and Usha's children as 'brown kids.' If that's not racist, what do you call it?" asked Sunny Reddy, the Michigan Republican Party's co-chair who moved to the United States in 1990 from India. "Let me be very clear to every Indian-American listening: Usha Vance is not Abdul El-Sayed's political punching bag. Her Indian heritage is not a punchline. Her marriage is not a punchline."

This election cycle, Republicans have started calling El-Sayed by his full Arabic name, Abdulrahman, in their negative messaging against him.

While responding, El-Sayed has made comments about Vice-President JD Vance, who has four children with his wife Usha, a practicing Hindu and the daughter of Indian immigrants.

RNC National Committee member Hima Kolanagireddy talks about El-Sayed's comments about the Vance family in Troy. Photo by MIRS.

In April, FOX News targeted El-Sayed for an appearance on "The Allen Analysis Show," which does national political coverage. El-Sayed was criticizing Vance's political philosophies, questioning how they work in an interracial family similar to his own.

"I love my brown children, and I think my brown kids are just as American as everyone else. JD Vance has brown kids who he thinks are less American than everyone else," El-Sayed said, with FOX News later honing in on those words.

Earlier this month, a video circulated of Vance at a rally saying "I would love to go back in time and tell my pawpaw, that there is a man who claims to stand for working people, who says not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticize it, you are a white supremacist. That's not my pawpaw's Democratic Party."

In response, El-Sayed on social media asked if Vance would take Usha with him "back in time to meet Pawpaw."

El-Sayed's wife, practicing psychiatrist Sarah Jukaku, is also the daughter of Indian immigrants. Jukaku's father was a nephrologist who trained in both the U.S. and India.

Michigan's Indian-American community could influence what may be a tight election between El-Sayed and second-time Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers.

According to Neilsberg, Michigan has 130,000 Asian Indians, a plurality of which live in Oakland County.

The press conference with the Michigan Republican Party was hosted in Troy, one of Oakland County's battleground communities. The area is known for its commercial corridor and a total Asian population of more than 27% of its residents.

In attendance was the party's youth chair, Krish Mathrani, who attended the local International Academy, which offers "international baccalaureate curriculum" to high schoolers. He estimated that 98% of the Troy campus was composed of Indian students.

"When you get to the college campuses, there's so much polarization, especially as a youth chair of the state party. I was elected by the delegates as an Indian-American, as a proud Hindu with a Hindu name," Mathrani said.

When in East Lansing, Mathrani explained how students assume he's Democratic-leaning. They ask if he's upset with conservative speakers visiting like the late activist Charlie Kirk and Ben Carson, President Donald Trump's nutrition, health and housing advisor.

Outside of the party, he's working on the campaign for Republican gubernatorial nominee and U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township). He called it "disgusting" that a speaker at opponent Jocelyn Benson's "Black Voters for Benson" coalition launch told attendees earlier this month that, "All skin folks are not all kinfolks" while describing James.

"I mean, John James was just in Detroit yesterday doing a roundtable with Black business owners, and they feel like they've been stabbed in the back, and I heard that," Mathrani said. "The idea that John is some sort of race-traitor is disgusting."

Also speaking was Haranath Policherla, a neurologist and sleep medicine doctor. Policherla moved to the United States from India in 1982, and views El-Sayed's comments as denigrating his "sister's honor."

"When I used to be in Detroit, right downtown when I was doing my residency, half of the patients were from Canada. Then we had a special desk for Canadian patients because they couldn't get their MRIs. They couldn't get their cardiothoracic surgery," Policherla said, describing Canada's free healthcare system for necessary hospital and physician services.

He said when patients cross borders, they're willing to pay in cash for MRIs of brain tumors because they face about a five-month waiting list back home.

Policherla added that when his sister, who lives in Canada, was dealing with a vascular issue in her legs, he said he spent $20,000 to take her to India to have her veins stripped and ulcers healed.

"Bringing family into politics or bringing personal lives into politics is the lowest form of politics," Policherla said about El-Sayed's comments regarding the Vance family. "And I appeal to everyone watching, Democrats, independents and Republicans, think before you vote."